Maniacal Me -rewriting-
by noordinarykilljoy
Summary: "A lot has happened to her this past year, she's broken, hurt, and she doesn't need you here to ruin it for her!" —Elena. - Joanna Gilbert is Elena's sarcastic and quite dark twin sister. The last year has been tough on them both, and stuff just gets harder as vampires gets to town and they find themselves having to hold more secrets than ever before. [Starts at S1]
1. Pilot

**Pilot  
** _I know you wanna go to heaven but you're human tonight_

* * *

It was a new morning and a new start of a new day. In the house that belonged to the Gilbert's sat a teenaged girl by the kitchen counter and ate her meal of cereal. She took her time, as she knew that she didn't need to do anything important that day. So she ate her cereal in silence as she read one of her favorite books. Soon that silence was interrupted by the sound of the teenager's strawberry blonde aunt bouncing into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Jo," she greeted her niece with a smile. The teenager smiled back and gave her aunt a two fingered salute. The aunt snorted before she looked in the cupboards for something to eat herself. Just then she had a thought. "Where's Elena and Jeremy?" she asked.

"Still probably sleeping," the girl, Jo, answered without looking up from her book. "Why?"

"Well, nothing except that it's their first day in school," her aunt noted with a small, teasing smile. Jo's eyes widened as she looked up at her aunt. She had forgotten that her siblings were to start their first day at school after the summer. "So, could you maybe be a good big sister and wake your siblings up?" her aunt asked with a charming smile, one she knew the teenager couldn't resist saying no to.

Jo groaned as she climbed down the stool. "Fine," she huffed. "But you owe me, Jenna," she pointed to her aunt before she disappeared out of the kitchen. She ran up the stairs and finally reached the door she was looking for. She banged her fist against it hard. "Yo, Jer! Wake up, you're gonna be late!" she yelled through the door. She heard a muffled 'fine' and decided that it was good enough of an answer from her brother. She then turned to the next door and decided to knock a bit more softly on it. "Oh, dear sister!" Jo sang through it. "Get your ass out of there before I drag it!"

Her twin sister opened the door to reveal herself, looking very tired and exhausted while doing so. "Hey, Jo," Elena greeted her sister. "What's up?"

"Jenna told me to get you up for school," Jo explained to her twin. "And… All I can think of is; You sure you're ready? I mean, you really wanna go there?" she asked with a concerned look as she saw her sister still seeming to have that permanent frown on her face.

"Gotta do it sometime," Elena muttered an answer and walked past her sister to continue down the hall. "So why not now?" she added as she started to walk down the stairs.

Jo sighed at her sister and decided to follow her back down, but not before she woke Jeremy up completely. She opened up her brother's door and sneaked in, seeing that he was still asleep. She huffed at her brother before she grabbed his comforter, dragged it off of him in a swift motion also while yelling "GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!" very loudly. Jeremy groaned and hissed at his sister that she was annoying and wished she died. Of course Jo didn't take it at heart so she only chuckled and kissed him all over his face to continue to annoy him before she ran out of his room seeing that he was ready to throw his lamp at her.

"Was that really necessary?" her sister asked her from the bottom of the stairs, having heard the whole thing.

"What? He needs to wake up and not be late for school, am I right?" Jo said and passed her sister so she could walk back into the kitchen. Seeing as her bowl of cereal was still on the counter, she grinned and sat back down to continue to eat her breakfast. She looked up from her bowl seeing her sister go to the coffeemaker while Jenna had her head buried into the fridge.

"Toast. I can make toast," she said and looked back to Elena who poured herself a cup of coffee.

"It's all about the coffee, aunt Jenna," Elena stated as she finished pouring the beverage into her cup.

"Is there coffee?" a new voice entered the kitchen and Jo couldn't help but to smirk at her brother as he walked in without a care in the world. Although when he saw his big sister he snorted and scowled at her as he went for a cup and poured coffee into it.

Jo, being Jo, took the opportunity to further annoy her little brother. "How lovely to see you this morning, dear brother," she beamed sarcastically and winked when Jeremy looked her way.

"Shut up, Jo," he hissed which earned a laugh from his sister.

"It's your first day of school and I'm so unprepared," Jenna mumbled to herself, not noticing the bickering between the oldest and youngest Gilbert sibling. Instead of noticing she went to her bag and dug through it before she found what she wanted and held out some money to the two that was going to school that day. "Lunch money?" she asked Elena and Jeremy. While Elena declined, Jeremy took the money from both hands earning a sigh from Jo. "Anything else?" Jenna asked. "A number two pencil? What am I missing?" she turned to ask Elena that last part, thinking she still forgot something.

"Don't you have a big presentation today?" Elena asked her aunt.

Jenna gave a small nod. "I'm meeting my thesis advisor at…" she trailed off as she looked down on her wrist watch. "Now - Crap!" she exclaimed and pulled her hair out of her incredibly messy bun.

"Then get out of here," Jo urged her aunt. "I'll take care of these two," she smirked at Jenna as Elena gave her twin a playful glare thinking that if anyone between the two of them needed a babysitter it would be Jo. Since they were twins it of course meant that they were the same age, only Jo was fifteen minutes older than her sister.

Jenna sighed at the siblings, but gave them a thankful smile, before she disappeared out of the door. Jo grinned before she began to eat her beloved cereal again, choosing to ignore her siblings the best she could. They seemed to fall out more than usual after the death of their parents. It was something Jo didn't like, but choose to not get in the middle of it. She heard her brother leave the room and her sister sigh next to her before she took a sip out of her coffee.

Jo, not being one to pay attention, turned to her twin with a concerned look. "You okay?"

Elena scoffed at the irony that she would ask her the same thing that she had asked Jeremy. She shook her head with a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Don't start…" she joked and walked out of the kitchen as well.

Jo stared after her in confusion. What had she missed? See, this is why she didn't have any friends in this town alone, she didn't pay enough attention. She sighed and thought about going after her sister, but stopped at the sound of the news on the TV. Jo turned to it and saw the report being about a couple that had gone missing the night before. Quickly turning it off, Jo scoffed and left the room with a shake of her head.

* * *

Later on the morning Jo stood out on the porch of her home in Mystic Falls and waved goodbye to her sister that climbed into the car with her friend Bonnie. Since Jo was seventeen she should have technically gone with them to the high school, but she was kind of just visiting her hometown for the time being. She had been living in Chicago and gone to a boarding school for about a year and only came to visit a few days before her parents had died, and she had just stayed with her siblings and aunt ever since. She wasn't complaining. She loved her family and Chicago somehow felt… Empty… She didn't know why, it hadn't always felt empty. But the last months of her staying there she just felt like something was missing. Something that was supposed to be there but just wasn't.

As she watched Elena get into her friend's car Jo smiled at them both and they returned it to her while adding a wave. Jo chuckled to herself and turned to walk back inside, but heard the sound of flapping wings. She turned and saw a crow had shown up out of nowhere and landed on the porch rail, staring right at the dark haired teenager. "Hello, birdie…" Jo said slowly as she examined the bird. The crow tilted its head to the said, as if to say that he was listening to the girl. "Great," Jo scoffed and turned her head away from the bird. "Now I'm talking to a crow…" she sighed and walked back inside, not daring to give the crow a second glance.

* * *

Elena and her best friend, Bonnie, was walking down the hall of the high school together, taking it all in once again after a four month break. They both reached the information desk when suddenly Bonnie stopped, pulling Elena with her.

"Hold up," Bonnie told her friend and made her turn towards the desk as well. "Who's this?" she asked in curiosity as she looked at the guy standing in front of the desk with his back turned to the two girls.

"All I see is back," Elena commented as she watched the guy as well.

"It's a hot back," Bonnie said, making Elena scoff in amusement. "I'm sensing Seattle, and he plays the guitar," she predicted as she examined the guy.

"You're really gonna run this whole psychic thing into the ground, huh?" Elena asked her best friend, which Bonnie shrugged at amusingly. The whole car ride Bonnie had talked about how her grandma had told her about their lineage of witches and that apparently Bonnie was one of them. This also meant that she had premonitions and things alike.

"Pretty much," she stated and kept staring at the back of the guy. Elena giggled at her friend and Bonnie joined her shortly after.

As Elena watched her friend with an amused smile, she saw her brother Jeremy through the corner of her eye walking into the men's room. This made Elena's smile drop. "I'll be right back," she told her friend before she marched over to her brother.

Bonnie however barely paid her any attention as she kept staring at the guy. "Please, be hot…" she pleaded with a whisper as she kept staring.

Elena marched through the doors to the bathroom for men, nearly knocking over a guy who was on his way out, and went straight to her brother and grabbed his face. As she examined his eyes and face in general, Jeremy looked at her like she was crazy.

"Great…" Elena sighed and let go of Jeremy's face. "It's the first day of school and you're stoned," she said matter factly and stubbornly watched her brother.

"No, I'm not," Jeremy protested against Elena.

"Where is it? Is it on you?" Elena asked the boy and searched his pockets for pills, weed or other drugs, while Jeremy just tried to push her away.

"Stop!" he demanded. "You need to chill yourself, alright?" he yelled at his sister and tried again to push her away from him.

"Chill myself? Do you hear yourself?" Elena sighed and stopped searching him for a moment. "If Jo was here she'd hit you over the head for stoner talking, then kick your ass for doing this again," she lectured her brother and continued to search his pockets. Elena didn't like being the nagging sister, but since Jo hated it more then someone had to do it.

"Stop, I don't have anything on me!" Jeremy tried to argue again. "Are you crazy?!" he yelled.

"You haven't seen crazy, Jeremy!" Elena stopped and stared dead into Jeremy's eyes. "Be glad it's me and not Jo, okay?" she said and sighed. "We gave you a summer pass, but I'm done watching you destroy yourself!" she told him in a pleading way. Jeremy snorted amusingly and tried to leave the room, but Elena pushed him back, not finished with her lecture. "No, no, no. You know what? Keep it up. But just know that I'm telling Jo and we're both going to be there to ruin your buzz every time, you got it?" Jeremy just kept glaring at his sister, but she finally seemed to have his attention. "Jeremy, I know who you are and it's not this person. Don't be this person," she begged her brother as a final plea.

Jeremy looked away before whispering in a low, irritated voice. "I don't need this," he said and left the bathroom in an angered rush.

It took a while for Elena to storm out as well, and when she did she accidently ran right into someone. She looked up only to see someone she had never met before. Although, he was handsome for sure. Green eyes, pale skin, great and soft hair.

"Uh, pardon me," he said as the two kept staring at each other. Elena felt like she was melting under his gaze. The guy then broke the stare to shift his gaze to the door Elena just came out of, then he looked back at her. "Uhm…" he said a bit confused. "Is this the men's room?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yes!" Elena said a bit too quickly, then regretted it. "Uhm… I was just - Uh… I-I was just…" she tried to come up with a good response, but it wouldn't come. She sighed then. "It's a long story," she said instead.

The guy smiled at her tightly, probably to get away all the awkward tension. Elena smiled back and tried to go to her class, but the guy seemed to have the same idea about leaving and accidently stepped in each other's way. To not make either feel even more uncomfortable the guy stepped out of the way so Elena could pass. She smiled at him as she thanked him and left, but looked back the last second to see him stare after her.

* * *

Jo slept on her bed in her old bedroom. She had spent the last couple of months in it, but it still felt so foreign to her. All those memories she had in the house in general felt like it was just something that was disappearing, vanishing into thin air. It was like her memories was just going away.

The girl however woke up from her slumber when she heard the front door open and close. Knowing that it was her sister coming home, Jo dashed up from her bed and down the stairs to greet Elena with a squeezing hug.

"Finally, you're home!" Jo exclaimed in Elena's ear as they swayed their hug. "I was getting bored out of my mind without you around!" she exaggerated and squeezed tighter.

"Jo?" Elena wheezed, trying to catch her breath from the bone crushing hug she was given by her twin.

"Right, sorry," Jo apologized and let go of her sister. "I guess I'm just used to having you around all day now…" she muttered, but quickly smiled as she grabbed her sister's arm. "So… Tell me everything that happened today!" she said and pulled Elena into the livingroom where they fell into the couch together in a laughing mess.

"Well… There's a new guy there-"

"Hot?" Jo interrupted her sister, having the need to know.

"Totally," Elena stated with a small, girlish giggle, making Jo join in on the laughter. Elena took a breath before continuing. "His name is Stefan, and I guess he's kinda mysterious," she told her sister with a small smile still on her face as she brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"Ooh, I like where this is going," Jo told her twin in a teasing manner, but Elena just sighed while her gaze turned down to her hands on her lap. Jo knew very well why she lost her giddiness. She sighed as well before opening her mouth. "Oh, c'mon, Elena! You can't brood about Matt forever. You were the one who broke up with him, remember?" Jo whined at her twin.

"He hates me, Jo."

"Doubt it," she turned it down immediately and looked right into Elena's eyes before she gave up and shifted her gaze elsewhere. "But what else happened today?" she asked instead.

Elena frowned a bit as she went through her day in her mind. "This really… weird thing…" she trailed off while furrowing her eyebrows and looked back to her sister as she explained. "I was by mom and dad's grave, when this… crow just showed up and sat on it, and it acted weird and-"

"Wait, a crow?" Jo asked.

"Yeah, why?" Elena asked cautiously.

Jo shook her head a bit. "I saw this crow on the porch after you went to school with Bonnie," she said. "It just really felt like it was staring at me, and understood what I said…"

Elena looked at her sister in the same confused look as Jo bore. Before either of them could say anything however, Elena's phone buzzed indicating that she got a text. She fished it up and read it quickly.

"Come on, we're going to the grill," she said and stood up.

"Wait, who was that?" Jo asked as she stood up with her sister as well.

"Bonnie," was Elena's short answer before she grabbed Jo's arm and dragged her up the stairs to change into more appropriate clothes.

* * *

When the two were done getting dressed, they walked out of Elena's room together and down the stairs. Since Jo wasn't really a girl for style, she just put on something comfortable yet not resembling pyjamas. She had some comfortable boyfriend-jeans, a baseball tee and her leather jacket.

As the two walked towards the door, they past their aunt. "Hey, we're meeting Bonnie at The Grill," Elena informed Jenna as they past.

"Okay, have fun," Jenna called and almost turned back around to go to the kitchen, but thought better of it and turned again to the two teenagers. "Wait! I got this," she assured herself and the snickering twins. "Don't stay out late, it's a school night, for the both of you."

Oh yeah, Jo had agreed with Jenna that since she's not going back to Chicago anytime soon, she should at least start going to Mystic High like her siblings. It was a discussion that ended pretty quickly, with Jo agreeing pretty quick.

Jo playfully rolled her eyes at her aunt and walked closer to the front door as her sister praised Jenna. As the two talked a bit and then Jenna leaving the twins, Jo finally opened the door to reveal a pretty handsome guy just standing there, which startled the girl. "Holy mother of god!" she gasped loudly at the guy and put a hand to her beating heart.

"Sorry, I was just about to knock," the guy told Jo with a small smile on his lips. Elena came up to stand beside her sister as she saw that it was Stefan standing by the door. Stefan's eyes danced between the two twins a few times in confusion. "There's two of you?" he asked in slight surprise.

"What? Can't handle two, buddy?" Jo sassed at the guy and took a step forward with a hand balled into a fist. Elena had to physically hold her sister back. She knew how short tempered she could be.

" _Joanna!_ " she whispered to her sister in warning, having Jo freeze in a second. She hated when people called her Joanna. It only meant that the people that said it was mad or they were mad enough to give a severe warning. Elena looked back up at the guy and stepped in front of Jo so she couldn't punch Stefan in the throat, which was something she had done numerous of times. "I'm sorry, Stefan," Elena apologized. "This is my sister, Jo," she told him.

" _This_ is Stefan?" Jo whispered to her sister with furrowed eyebrows and Elena nodded to her question. Jo looked at the guy with a suspicious eye. Something was off about him, like he had some creepy aura around him, and it only made her want to punch him even more.

"Sister?" Stefan asked. "With how you two look you could easily be twins," he joked, but still seemed a bit confused.

He wasn't wrong though. They were twins, but not entirely identical, yet they were very much alike. Same skin tone, body structure and partly same face. However, while Elena had brown eyes and pin straight brown hair, Jo had green-brown eyes and shorter, darker, wavier hair.

"We are," the twins said in unison, although Elena said it with a smile while Jo said it irritatedly with an eyeroll. It made Stefan stare at the two with a bit amusement, but the confusion hadn't left his facial features.

Jo looked from the guy to her sister a few times before she sighed. "I'll just wait outside," she told Elena, since it was pretty obvious that Stefan came to the house for her. She walked out, seeing the smile on both of their faces, and waited for her sister by the sidewalk.

* * *

Turned out that Stefan came to the Gilbert's house to give Elena her diary that she had lost in the cemetery when she was freaked out by the crow. When they had talked a bit, Elena had also invited him to come with the twins to The Grill to meet their friends. He reluctantly accepted and that's how the three ended up at the parking lot to The Grill. Just as they were about to walk into the building, Jo's phone buzzed.

"You guys go ahead inside, I'll be there in a sec," she told the pair beside her and they nodded before walking into the building together, while Jo fished out her phone from her jacket. She looked at the caller ID, but it was an unknown number. She answered either way. "Hello, Jo Gilbert speaking?" she said into the receiver as she looked in by the window to The Grill, to see Matt awkwardly greeting Elena and Stefan. She winced a bit at that before remembering she was on the phone. There was no answer so she tried again. "Hello?" she asked. There wasn't a sound, not even some creepy breathing. Jo sighed irritatedly. "Dude, if this is a prank call, then I'm not amused!" The other end hung up at that. Jo took away her phone from her ear to look weirdly at it. "Okay… Weird," she muttered to herself.

She shrugged her shoulders and walked into The Grill, seeing her sister and her friends sitting at a table together. She walked over and took a seat next to Stefan, who she had apologized towards after her behaviour earlier.

"So you were born in Mystic Falls?" she heard Caroline ask Stefan as soon as she had sat down.

"Mhm," he hummed a yes. "And moved when I was still young," he answered.

"Parents?" Bonnie asked. Jo felt a bit uncomfortable. They were questioning a lot. Sure it wasn't questions towards her, she just felt uncomfortable for Stefan's sake.

"My parents passed away," he answered the girl.

It got a bit quiet around the table as the twins and Bonnie shared a look. "I'm sorry," Elena then said, knowing damn well how it feels to lose one's parents. Both the sisters knew.

"How about siblings?" Jo asked and looked at Stefan, expecting an answer.

"None that I talk to," he answered with a slight smug smirk. "I live with my uncle," he said and looked to Elena, who stared back with a shy smile.

"So, Stefan," Caroline said, ripping his attention away from Elena. "If you're new, then you don't know about the party tomorrow," she said, as in she was inviting him. Jo's attention however was still stuck at the word 'party'.

"It's a back to school thing at the falls," Bonnie explained further and Jo's attention perked up even more. _Party? Alcohol? Falls? Count me in!_ She thought as she practically bounced in her seat.

"Are you going?" Stefan asked Elena beside him, giving her his full attention.

"Hell yeah, she's going! I'm gonna drag her ass there!" Jo spoke up, now excited as hell for a party.

"What Jo meant was;" Bonnie spoke, giving Jo a meaningful look as if to say 'shut up already'. "Of course she's coming," she smiled at Elena who shyly smiled back.

* * *

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls," Tanner taught his students, but not many listened to the boring man. It was the next day and Jo had successfully been again enrolled in Mystic High. Although, she wasn't particularly happy with having Tanner as her history teacher. She loved history, but loathed Tanner with all her heart… "How many casualties resulted in this battle?" he asked the class, but didn't give anyone time to answer before he turned to Bonnie. "Miss Bennett?"

Bonnie confusingly looked up from her notes. "Uhm… A lot?" she asked rather than stated. "I'm not sure. Like a whole lot," she said and a few students snorted and snickered, Jo a bit included.

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Miss Bennett," Tanner said lowly and unamused.

"And Tanner becomes a douche in an instant as well," Jo muttered just as lowly and unamused as her teacher, however he seemed to have heard her.

"Would you like to try and come up with the correct answer, Miss Gilbert?" Tanner asked her. Just as she remembered him, he seemed to remember her, and it was not for any good reasons.

Jo sighed and relaxed into her chair, looking casual. "If I remember right, there were about 300 casualties," she told him with a little smirk, proud of herself for remember her studies in Chicago.

However, Tanner didn't seem as proud of her, but still smirked a little to himself. "Ah, but I want exact numbers, Miss Gilbert," he tsked and turned his attention to Matt, but not before he heard Jo's carefully selected curses for him. "Mister Donovan?" he asked loudly, earning Matt's attention. "Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?" Yep, Jo hated that guy.

"It's okay, Mister Tenner. I'm cool with it," Matt told the teacher with a little smirk as he sat just as casual as Jo did. Jo smiled over to her friend as a few students again snickered.

Tanner hummed in acknowledgement before he turned to Elena. "Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?" he asked the girl, who looked up at him a bit frightened.

"I'm sorry, I-I don't know," she said while shaking her head a bit.

Tanner again didn't look amused. "I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena," he told the girl who shrunk down in her seat. "But personal excuses ended with summer break."

Jo's temper rose with those words. "I'll break his arm!" she hissed and was halfway up her seat to kick the teacher's ass all the way to China, but a hand gripped her shoulder and pushed her right down. She knew it was Stefan, since he had taken the seat behind her.

"There were 346 casualties," Stefan spoke up just as he had pushed Jo back to her chair. "Unless you're counting local civilians," he said, making Jo turn around to watch him. How the hell did he know the exact number? Jo hadn't even read of an exact number? Was the guy some kind of history freak?

Tanner looked a bit shocked that a student actually had the right answer, one of his own at it as well. "That's correct, Mister…?" Tanner asked Stefan.

"Salvatore," Stefan answered with a small, polite smile.

"Salvatore," Tanner repeated and looked up to the ceiling, trying to figure out where he had heard that before. "Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?" he asked then and looked back to the student.

Stefan hesitated, then gave a smug smile. "Distant."

"Well, very good," Tanner praised and walked over to his board the turned back around to watch Stefan. "Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle," he said and turned back to his board.

"Actually," Stefan interrupted the teacher's movements. "There were 27, sir." Tanner turned back around to watch Stefan with a skeptical eye. "Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss," Stefan said it in such detail like he could've been there himself, witness it. It made Jo feel more cautious to him. But, that soon changed. "The founder's archives are, eh, stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mister Tanner," Stefan said and some laughed mockingly at Tanner's shocked face.

Jo herself was beyond amused as she turned in her seat to speak to Stefan. "Dude, you know your history," she grinned in amusement and Stefan only shrugged with a small satisfied smile of his own.

* * *

It had finally come to the time of the party. Elena, her sister and Bonnie stood by the warm bonfire while listening to the blaring music and talking to each other. Or it was more like Bonnie and Jo trying to get information out of Elena over how she felt about Stefan.

"Just admit it, Elena!" Jo whined at her sister while giving her a pleading look while Bonnie just watched the two of us with an amused look.

"Admit what?" Elena tried to innocently crawl her way out of the conversation.

"Elena!" Bonnie yelled as well as laughed at her best friend.

"Okay, so he's a little pretty," Elena shyly confessed to her friend and sister while looking down at the beer in her hand.

"A little?" Jo huffed a laugh at Elena.

"He has that whole romance novel stare," Bonnie said and all three of then laughed together.

"'Stefan stared at her intensly, hiding his feelings in his stare,'" Jo joked as she deepened her voice and narrowed her eyes the slightest as she stared at Elena. The trio laughed again. Jo had missed that, she had missed the sincere sound of her sister's laugh.

"So," Bonnie said as they recovered from their giggles. "Where is he?" she asked.

"I don't know," Elena frowned as she looked around a bit, but then turned to her best friend with a smirk. "You tell me, you're the psychic one," she said.

"Right, I forgot," Bonnie smiled back and nodded her head a bit, then straightened up and closed her eyes. "Okay, so give me a sec. Grams says I need to concentrate."

Jo couldn't help but to giggle at her friend. "Wait!" she interrupted her concentration. "You need a crystal ball," she said and gave Bonnie her now empty beer bottle. "Here," Jo smiled and held the bottle to her. Just as Bonnie was about to take the bottle, her fingers skimmed over Jo's and she froze as she seemed to zone out. "Bonnie? You alright?" Jo asked her friend in concern.

Bonnie quickly snatched her hand away and continued to stare at Jo. "That was weird," she said and didn't take her eyes off of Jo. "When I touched you, I saw a crow."

"What?" the twins asked in unison, now getting creeped out since they had both seen a weirdly acting crow lately.

"A crow," Bonnie stated and for once stopped staring at one of the twins. "There was fog, a man…" she said as if she was trying to figure everything that she saw out.

It concerned Jo. "Bonnie?"

The psychic looked up. "I'm drunk. It's the drinking. It's nothing psychic about it. Yeah?" she said, but didn't convince the twins since they both knew that Bonnie had only drank one beer. "Okay, I'm gonna get a refill," she said quickly and walked away from the two girls.

"Well…" Jo said slowly to her twin as they both watched Bonnie's retrieving back. "That's not weird or anything," she said as she turned to her sister. She saw someone familiar with green eyes standing behind her sister patiently and she couldn't help but to smile. "Hey, uh, I'm gonna look for something with a little more spike," she said quickly and left as well, but turned just in time to see Stefan and Elena smiling to each other.

* * *

Jo paced through the loud party a bit until she had had enough of the blaring music and the hormonal drunk teenagers. She ended up in the woods, right by the falls. She wasn't too far away, she could still hear the music clearly. However, she was sulking. She had so much on her mind that it almost killed her inside. It made her kick everything she came close to.

"Lost?" a voice behind her asked her. It didn't particularly scare the girl just surprised her. She turned to see a tall guy standing just a foot away from her. "And you're pissed too. Ooh… Not good," he said and his icy blue eyes twinkled in amusement.

"I'm not lost," Jo defended and crossed her arms over her chest and looked to the guy with furrowed eyebrows. She felt like she knew that guy, somehow. How or when or why, she didn't know. All she knew was that she recognized him somehow. "Are you?" she asked him with a raised brow.

The guy scoffed at the question. "Do I look like a lost soul to you?" he asked with a smirk.

 _Who said anything about souls?_ Jo thought as she stared weirdly at the guy. "You look like a guy who wished you didn't have a soul at all," she said with a small frown as she looked him over.

At that statement the guy's smile faded a bit and he took one step closer, but Jo stood still and didn't move away from the guy. "Who are you…?" he asked quietly, but it didn't seem like he asked Jo, it was more like he asked himself.

When Jo was just about to say something, a scream in the distance interrupted her. She recognized the voice immediately. "Vicki?" she breathed out as she looked at the direction of where the scream came from. She then turned back to the guy to excuse herself and run to the scream, but he wasn't there anymore. She looked around everywhere around her, but didn't see him anywhere. She then sighed. "Did he seriously just go Batman on me?" she muttered to herself with a shake of her head. Without further thinking or staying, she left to find Vicki.

* * *

She had found Vicki along with Jeremy, but Vicki seemed pissed off and ran before Jo could even reach the two. Jo asked her brother what was up, but he seemed pissed as well and left, but not without some confrontation from his sister. It didn't end happily, which was why Jo again paced in the woods. She was just about to head back to the party when she heard another yell, but this was one out of fear. Jo ran towards the shriek, even though every cell of her body told her not to. When she had gotten pretty far into the woods again, she heard voices and recognized them as Elena and Jeremy. Her telling him to stop and him trying to get away. It was like déjà vu for Jo.

"I don't wanna hear it," Jeremy said and stumbled over something.

Jo ran over and got his drunk ass up from the ground, and that's when they both saw what Jeremy had fallen over. "What the hell?!" Jo shrieked in suprise and in the process accidently dropped Jeremy. They were all speechless after seeing that it was an unconscious Vicki with an incredibly bloody neck lying there.

"Vicki?" Jeremy called and lightly slapped her cheek. "No… Oh, my god, it's Vicki!" he told his sisters.

"You don't say, idiot?!" Jo yelled at him in frustration. Yeah, she wasn't very good at handling those sort of situations.

"Oh, my god…" Elena breathed out as she could only stare.

"No," Jeremy mumbled again and went to check her pulse.

Just then Vicki jerked awake and gasped for air, successfully scaring the living hell out of the siblings. "Holy mother of god!" Jo exclaimed and backed so much that she fell on her ass.

Jeremy quickly picked Vicki up as Elena helped her sister from the ground, then they all ran back towards the party. "Somebody help!" Elena called as they were close enough. Matt instantly ran forward, yelling his sister's name. Next was Tyler, then Caroline and Bonnie. They all crowded around Vicki as they all tried to help the unconscious girl.

* * *

Stefan had ran from the party as soon as he had seen the injured girl. He only knew one thing that could do that. Vampire. As far as he knew, he was the only one in town, so who had just strolled into town that was like him? Who was a vampire?

He went up to his room and felt a slight breeze. Stefan looked behind him and saw that the balcony door was open and soon enough a crow flew in and past him. He stared at the crow for a long time before he heard another sound.

He didn't even have to look to know who it was. "Damon," he stated calmly as he watched the bird. Then he turned to see the raven haired, blue eyed brother of his.

"Hello, brother," he greeted, his grin not fading even once as he strolled further into the room.

"Crow's a bit too much, don't you think?" Stefan asked his brother as he kept a careful eye on him wherever he went.

"Wait till you see what I can do with the fog," Damon smirked as he looked around Stefan's bedroom. It had been a long time since he was there last.

"When'd you get here?" Stefan asked, not taking his eyes off his brother.

"Well, I couldn't miss your first day of school," he said sarcastically as he walked up to the bookcase. "Your hair's different," he commented as he looked through the books. "I like it," he said and looked to his brother with another smile.

"It's been 15 years, Damon," Stefan sighed, getting bored of his behaviour already.

"Thank god!" Damon said with wide eyes. "Couldn't take another day of the 90's. That horrible grunge look?" he scoffed as he cringed. "Did not suit you," he went to stand in front of his brother. "Remember Stefan, it's important to stay away from the fads."

"Why are you here?" Stefan asked his brother with a firm tone.

"I missed my little brother," Damon shrugged innocently.

"You hate small towns," Stefan stated. "It's boring, there's nothing for you to do," he shook his head, trying to understand his brother's twisted mind.

"I've managed to keep myself busy," Damon smirked smugly and looked around again.

"You know you left that girl alive tonight. That's very clumsy of you," Stefan told him.

"A. That can be a problem…" he then looked straight at Stefan. "For you," he finished with his signature smirk.

"Why are you here now?" Stefan asked again.

"I could ask you the same question. However, I'm fairly certain your answer can be summed up in two little words…" Damon paused as he held up two fingers, then dropped them as he looked to his brother again with a smirk. "Gilbert Twins."

* * *

After probably 30 minutes or so, animal control, an ambulance and cops showed all up at the party. The ambulance was now getting Vicki inside and Matt climbed in right after before the drove off towards the hospital. Elena stood next to her sister Jo and watched the whole thing. Jo slid her hand into Elena's and gently squeezed it, as if telling her that she wasn't alone. She must've seen how nervous and anxious Elena was over the whole situation.

"I'm gonna take Jeremy to the car. You get there whenever you need, okay?" Jo told her sister. Elena nodded to her and they parted ways. Jo was sober enough to drive, which was why they didn't have to call Jenna or ask someone else to drive them home. Elena watched as Jo walked over to Jeremy and pulled him up from his sitting position with the collar of his shirt and dragged him towards the car.

Bonnie showed up and stopped beside her best friend. "Hey," she greeted Elena. "We're gonna go to Mainline Coffee, wait for news and sober up," she told her with a slight smile, as if she was being cautious around her.

"I gotta help Jo take Jeremy home," Elena said and looked over to how her sister struggled to get Jeremy to walk straight, so the cops wouldn't get any ideas.

"Elena," Bonnie's voice brought back Elena's attention to her. "There's no way I'm psychic. I know that. But whatever I saw, or think I saw when I touched Jo, I have this feeling…" she said a bit uneasily.

"Bonnie, what?" Elena asked, getting concerned.

"That it's just the beginning…"

* * *

"She and her sister took my breath away," Damon said as he paced around. "They're dead ringers for Katherine," he smirked at his brother again, still taunting him. "Is it working, Stefan? Being around Elena, being in her world? Does it make you feel alive?"

"She's not Katherine," Stefan stated firmly. "Neither is Joanna," he added quietly, trying to stay calm over the situation.

"Well, let's hope not. We both know how that ended…"

* * *

 _Wordcount: 7281_

 **A/N: About damn time I get this done... Fucking hellllllll oh my god you have no idea how hard I've worked for everything to actually come together...**

 **Yeahyeah, well, here's the first rewritten chapter. If you've read the previous one then you can see that it isn't that much difference, except that it is in third person and I deleted some stuff that I didn't found necessary.**

 **Hope you liked it either way and that you will continue to read this further on. -Kisses**


	2. Night of the Comet

**Night of the Comet  
** _For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool_

* * *

Jo sat the next morning again in the kitchen, but this time she was drinking coffee and doodling in her history book, just to piss off Tanner even more. Man, did she dislike the guy. Always had.

Suddenly her sister strode into the kitchen with their aunt on her tail. Although, Jenna didn't stop for long, only glanced in to wave to Jo and then walk right out of the house.

Jo stared at the now closed door as she spoke to her sister. "Am I hallucinating, or did Jenna actually look like an adult?" she asked and she heard Elena snicker behind her. Jo turned to watch her as she went through some speculations. "What do you think happened? Existential crisis?" she asked, then squinted her eyes as a last option came to mind. "Aliens?"

Elena almost laughed out loud at that as she poured herself some coffee. "Parent-teacher conference for Jeremy happened," she kept on smiling, and Jo again grew suspicious. Something was different with her sister. She seemed… Happier. Elena saw how squinted her sister's eyes were and she looked at her confused. "What?" she asked with a small chuckle.

"You seem happy," Jo blurted out bluntly. "Why are you happy?"

Elena giggled. "I just feel fine for once, is that so weird?" she asked her twin.

"Yes!" Jo exclaimed, making Elena laugh at her ridiculousness. Jo then leaned forward and looked over her sister, which Elena squirmed a bit under her gaze. "Hmm…" Jo mused. "Let me guess?" She took another look before she met her eyes. "Stefan?"

"You heard him come in yesterday, huh?" Elena blushed.

"And I heard you two talking all night. How do you manage that, exactly?" Jo asked with a slight smirk on her face and turned back to her coffee.

"I'm not sex driven, like some," Elena said pointedly at Jo. Her sister rolled her eyes at that as she kept doodling. Suddenly, Elena grew somewhat serious. "Hey, about last night," she started and gripped her cup of coffee tighter as her twin looked up at her. "I heard you walking around your room almost all night, what's up with that? Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

Jo grew silent as she again looked down at her many doodles and remembered the night before. What had happened to Vicki had caught the girl off guard. She thought that she recalled something similar from the past, but as she had paced around her room and thought all night about it, she just couldn't come up with a good answer to what had happened. She just couldn't remember

So instead, she shrugged to her sister's question and said the first thing that came up. "Just worried about Matt and Vicki," she said. "Especially Matt. He's gone through so much with his mom and Vicki's drug issues, he just doesn't deserve having his sister injured," she blurted out her thoughts and ended with her drinking the last drops of coffee.

"So you're okay?"

"Yep."

"So you're coming to school?"

"Yep!" Jo called as she was halfway out of the kitchen with her things gathered.

* * *

At the school, the oldest Gilbert twin had barely paid any attention in her classes and had even fallen asleep in history, having Tanner wake her up rudely by yelling at her. But right then the class was over and Jo wasted no time to get out of the classroom to avoid the devil in disguise. So at the time, she sat outside of the building on a bench and doodled in her history book. She made a poorly portrait of her teacher with horns and mustache and multiple pimples. Yes, Joanna Gilbert was very childish.

She suddenly heard the doors from the school open and close and she looked up to see her brother making his way towards Tyler. "You idiot…" she muttered under her breath as she gathered her things to then run over to the two boys.

"Hey, Tyler!" Jeremy called out to the guy, making Jo groan in annoyance. She finally got to his side as he had stopped right in front of Tyler. "Hey, sorry to interrupt," he smiled not-so-apologetic. "I was just wondering how Vicki's doing, since you guys are so close?" he asked with a small satisfied smirk.

However, Jo smacked him on his biceps as she hissed at him. "You have a death wish or something, brat?!"

But she went ignored, as usual. "Is she okay?" her brother asked Tyler.

Tyler wore a tight lipped, fake smile as he spoke. "She's fine. Now get the hell out of here."

"How bad is she?" Jeremy asked, and Jo knew that many annoying questions were to come from his mouth as she muttered a curse. "Do they know what attacked her? Is she going to make a full recovery? Was she happy to see you? What room number was she in?" Jeremy blurted out and Jo was actually impressed by how many questions he could come up with.

Tyler leaned in a bit closer to growl at the two siblings. "I'm gonna kick your ass," he told Jeremy.

"Oh no, you're not, Lockwood," Jo said and stepped up in the middle of the two guys.

"Stay out of it, Jo," Tyler warned, keeping his glare onto Jeremy.

"Not a chance, Tyler," Jo growled back. "You wanna mess with Jer, you're messing with me. Remember what happened last time?" she asked with a small satisfied smirk. That smirk only grew wider as she saw a flash of panic in Tyler's eyes when he looked down at her.

But he quickly put on a brave face to hide it. "I'm still kicking his ass," he told her.

This time Jeremy stepped in between them, to both shield Jo and to have a clear view of Tyler's stupid face. "Yeah, you keep saying that," he whispered to the older guy. "But when are you actually gonna do it? Huh?" Jeremy taunted him and Jo saw the whole thing going south real soon. "'Cause I vote for right here and right now," he said and shoved Tyler back.

"Jeremy," Jo warned her brother lowly as she put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back. Don't get her wrong, she would love to see her brother kick Tyler's ass, but wrong time, wrong place.

"Walk away, Gilbert's," Tyler warned both siblings. "It's your final warning."

"No, this is your final warning, dick," Jeremy warned back, getting up in Tyler's face as he spoke. "I'm sick of watching you play Vicki _and_ Joanna. If you hurt either of them one more time, I swear to god, I'll kill you," he said and quickly left.

Jo watched her brother leave and soon decided to leave as well. Being near Tyler for long could make you sick, and she didn't want that.

* * *

After school had fortunately finished, Jo found herself at The Grill along with Bonnie, Caroline and Elena as they all were fixing some informative papers for the comet to the evening. Jo didn't know why she was helping them, she wasn't even a part of the comitté that was arranging the festival for the comet. She just somehow got roped in by her sister, pleading for Jo's help.

"So, I was talking to Grams," Bonnie spoke as she went through her speculations of her 'witchy-business' as Jo called it. "And she said the comet is a sign of impending doom," she said.

"Impending doom?" Jo asked in disbelief. "What is this, some kinda DC comics stuff?"

"No," Bonnie shot her down almost immediately with a small smile on her face. "Grams just said that the last time it passed over Mystic Falls, there was a lot of death. So much blood and carnage, it created a bed of paranormal activity," she explained to the girls sitting with her.

"Like the movie?"

"Jo!"

"What?" she shrugged. "Gotta ask."

"Well, that's just what Grams told me," Bonnie concluded as she playfully glared at the oldest Gilbert twin.

"Yeah, and then you poured Grams another shot and she told you about aliens," Caroline said sarcastically, not liking the topic Bonnie was bringing up since they had previously been focused on Elena's night with Stefan. She turned to Elena as she asked her to say more details of their evening.

"So then nothing," Elena answered.

"You and Stefan talked all night?" Caroline asked, not really trusting Elena to tell the truth. "There was no sloppy first kiss or touchy feely of any kind?" she asked.

"Nope, we didn't go there," Elena shook her head.

Caroline turned to Jo for confirmation. "Don't look at me like that!" she yelped and put up her hands in surrender, but told the truth. "They didn't do anything but boringly talked."

"Not even a handshake?" the blonde asked both twins and they both just looked at her weirdly. "I mean, Elena! We are your best friends-" Jo coughed "-and sister," Caroline added with an eye roll. "Okay? You're supposed to share the smut," she complained.

Jo groaned at that, disgusted. "Please, don't," she said as she shook her head. "I really don't wanna hear about my sister's sex life… I heard enough from Matt when they were together…" she added in a whisper and a shudder, making the rest look at her weirdly before Elena managed to speak again.

"We just talked for hours," she said in all honesty.

"Okay, what's up with the blockage?" Caroline asked exaggerated. "Just jump his bones already! Okay, it's easy. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, sex!" she smiled at her little speech.

However, the twins only rolled their eyes. "Profound," they found themselves saying with the same sarcastic tone. But after seemingly thinking about it, Elena suddenly stood from her seat beside her sister and gathered her things.

"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked her.

"Caroline's right."

"What the what now?" Jo asked, but went ignored.

"It is easy," Elena said. "If I sit here long enough, I'll end up talking myself out of it instead of doing what I started the day saying what I was going to do," she said and gave herself a nod before she left the girls. Jo watched her sister go when she suddenly stood to leave as well.

"Hey! You can't leave, too!" Caroline tried stopping her.

"Well, she was my ride," Jo called over her shoulder to the two remaining friends by the table.

* * *

"You didn't have to come, you know," Elena said to her sister as they walked up to the Salvatore Boarding House that they had just arrived at.

"Calm down, sis," Jo sighed as they came up to the front door. "I'm just looking out for ya. I'll give you and Stefan some alone time," she said lowly as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. That earned her a slight smack to her arm by Elena, which she only laughed at. "Besides," she said as she sobered up. "You were my ride." She knocked on the door in front of them, only to have it creak open without anybody standing on the other side. "Yeah, not creepy or anything…" Jo commented and shared a confused look with her sister. Elena just sighed and walked in, making Jo panic. "Elena!" she whisper-shouted after her to try and get her back outside. Somehow, she didn't have a good vibe about the whole thing.

"Stefan?" Elena called into the house as she walked further, disappearing behind a corned.

Jo watched her sister go, contemplating going after her or just stay behind. She looked behind herself at the car and then again into the house. With a loud groan into the sky she stomped into the house and found Elena.

"Elena, let's just go," she said as soon as she had come up behind her in the large house.

"Why?" Elena whispered back.

"Why? You're honestly asking me why?! This is like trespassing or something!" Jo warned, but Elena just snorted and went further into the house. "Elena!"

"Stefan?" the younger twin called into the house again, and again didn't get an answer.

Both twins came to a stop right in the middle of the corridor. They couldn't help but to admire the decors and architectures of the house. They both however got interrupted by the front door behind them creaking. The twins turned swiftly in sync towards the door and just stared at it a bit startled. Though, the door was still wide open, just like they had left it.

"Let's just go," Jo whispered to Elena as they just stared at the door. "I have this really weird feeling…" Elena seemed to agree since she silently nodded to Jo's suggestion. But when they were both about to walk towards the door and out of it, a crow randomly flew into the house and past the two sisters. They both gasped and turned quickly to watch the crow, but right there stood a guy, not even two inches away from Jo. "Holy mother of god!" she gasped loudly and took a step away from the guy. It was then that she noticed that it was the same guy from the night before from the party. The guy just tilted his head ad smiled towards the girl in front of him.

"I… We're sorry for barging in," Elena began, gaining the man's attention. "The door was…" she said and she and her sister turned their heads to look at the door again, but saw it to be closed this time.

"What the hell…?" Jo asked herself quietly.

The guy turned his attention away from Jo to her sister. "You must be Elena," he said with an obviously fake smile. "I'm Damon, Stefan's brother," he introduced and looked between the twin with interest in his eyes.

Although Elena seemed to kind of trust the guy, Jo was the opposite. She didn't trust him, as it was evident in the way she looked at him with uneasy confusion. She had a bad feeling about him. The same bad feeling she had had the first time she met Stefan, like something just wasn't right.

"He didn't tell me he had a brother," Elena said confusedly and backed away a bit, coming to a stand next to her sister. Jo rolled her eyes. _Correction, dear twin; he said he didn't talk to any of his siblings,_ she thought to herself as she grabbed her sister's hand.

Damon shrugged at Elena's statement. "Well, Stefan's not one to brag," he said with a overly friendly smile. "Please, come," he said and put a gentle hand on Jo's upper arm to lead the sisters further into the house. "I'm sure Stefan will be along any second," he assured the sisters as they entered the room down the hall.

Jo looked around herself as soon as they entered. It looked like some kind of living room, or a huge study. She should've really known by now, since she had actually spent a part of her childhood sometimes in the huge boarding house.

"Wow," Elena marvelled over the many furniture and architecture of the room. "This is the living room?" she asked without turning to look at the older Salvatore who still had a hand on her sister's arm.

"Living room, parlor, Sotheby's auction," Damon listed as he too looked in the room. "It's a little kitschy for my taste," he shrugged nonchalantly.

Jo finally noticed the hold he still had on her arm. She awkwardly shrugged it off and took a step away from the guy. Damon looked at her intently at her movements and Jo stared back at him in confusion.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," he smiled down before he met her eyes again. "But I didn't get your name the other night," he said.

"That's because I didn't give you my name," Jo muttered sarcastically at the guy and Elena turned to her sister in confusion, since she hadn't heard of Jo meeting Damon earlier. It made Jo sigh. She met Damon's eyes again as she introduced herself. "Joanna," she said. "But everyone calls me Jo," she stated and looked away from the guy, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

"Joanna," Damon tester her name on his tongue, and the girl had mixed feelings about how his eyes glinted when he said it or how he slightly bit his lip, as if to stop himself from laughing. The brunette rolled her eyes and turned her back on him, continuing to look around the room. Damon noticed her not wanting to pay him any attention. He slightly rolled her eyes at her before he turned to her sister and noticed her intense stare on Jo. He smirked at that. "I see why my brother's so smitten," he told her, making both of the twins turn to him, and he knew he had their attention once again. "It's about time. For a while there I never thought he'd get over the last one," he said and he once again noticed the girls' confused stares.

"The last one?" Elena asked while Jo crossed her arms, silently asking herself what the guy was getting out of the conversation.

"Yeah, Katherine, his girlfriend?" Damon said, like it was as obvious as one two three. Elena looked at him and awkwardly shook her head with a small shrug, while her sister narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you two haven't had the awkward exes conversation, yet," he stated with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Nope," Elena shook her head again.

"Oops…" he grimaced, but somehow Jo knew he wasn't sorry in any way by the little small smirk that was beginning to twitch onto his lips. "Well, I'm sure it'll come up now. Or maybe, he didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you to think he was on the rebound."

"Excuse me?" Jo asked with slight anger as she took a step towards him. _What is this guy playing at?!_

"I'm just saying, we all know how those relationships end," Damon defended with a small shrug.

"You know you're basically saying that every relationship is doomed to end," Jo said and took yet another step closer, ending up coming face to face with the guy who was now watching her intently.

"I'm a fatalist," he shrugged again as his smirk grew. His blue eyes bored into her brown eyes, and he almost found himself lost in them. So lost that he almost didn't hear his brother enter the house. Almost. "Hello, Stefan," he called without looking away from the girl's intense stare.

Both twins turned towards the threshold and sure enough the younger Salvatore stood there, with an intense glare towards his brother. Jo stared at him in confusion. She hadn't even heard him come in the house, let alone the room.

"Elena, Jo," Stefan greeted coldly, and barely spared them a glance since his attention was mostly on his brother. "I didn't know you were coming over."

"I know, I should've called, I just-"

"Oh don't be silly," the older Salvatore interrupted the younger Gilbert. "You are both welcome any time. Aren't they, Stefan?" Damon asked his brother and put gentle hand on Jo's shoulder. This made Stefan's glare intensify and Damon's smirk grow. "You know, I should break out the family photo albums or some home movies. But, I have to warn you," he said as he turned to the younger Gilbert. "He wasn't always such a looker."

"Thank you for stopping by, girls," Stefan spoke and gave the twins a quick glance before he returned to look at his brother. "Nice to see you both."

The twin's gazes flickered between the brothers before they shared a small glance. "Uh… Yeah, we should probably get going, Elena," Jo said slowly and awkwardly as she turned to walk out of the room.

"Yeah," Elena agreed. "It was nice meeting you, Damon," she said as she turned to the dark-haired brother.

Damon took ahold of one of her hands. "Great meeting you too, Elena," he said and kissed the back of her hand, as if he was mocking his brother.

Elena gave him a small, yet awkward, smile before she turned to leave with her sister, but they both noticed that Stefan stood a little in their way. "Stefan?" Elena asked softly, but the man wouldn't budge.

Jo sighed before she smacked the guy on the shoulder. "Yo, Stef?" she said a bit louder and more forceful than her sister and the guy moved to the side to let the two leave.

As the two walked down the hall, Damon called out. "Oh, Joanna?" he said and the twin turned to him her attention. "Lovely meeting you again," he smirked at her.

The girl awkwardly smiled back. "Ditto," she muttered under her breath, but the man seemed to have heard her since he started to chuckle. It confused her, but she saluted the two either way. "Bye Salvatores!" she called as she walked completely out the door, with her sister quickly by her side.

* * *

"He's on the rebound and has raging family issues," Elena told Jenna as the two of them plus Jo stood in the kitchen, cooking dinner together.

The sisters hadn't really talked much on their way back home, mostly because Elena focused on the things Damon had told her and also on her driving, while Jo thought of the dark haired brother as well. Something just wasn't right about that man. Something was just… well, wrong.

So when the two had gotten back home and had found their aunt in the kitchen, asking them about their day, Elena immediately went into story-mode. She told the woman everything, all from her meeting the guy outside of the guy's bathroom to meeting him again in the cemetery, from how they had talked for so long the evening before to him barely shooting her a glance back at the boarding house. She also told her all about her insecurities with the guy now that Damon had filled her head with them.

"Well, at least it's an ex-girlfriend," Jenna said to her niece in an attempt to cheer her up. "Wait till you date a guy with mommy issues or cheating issues."

"Don't forget the ones with drug issues," Jo stated as she handed her sister a plate where she could put her chopped up vegetables. The other girls in the room slightly chuckled at her input.

They heard the door open and close and they all turned to see that Jeremy had finally come home. Jenna fumed as she threw the cloth she had on her shoulder down at the counter. "Jeremy!" she called as she walked after her nephew. "Jeremy where were you?!"

"What's that about?" Jo asked her sister as they both heard their aunt continuing to scold their brother.

Elena sighed as she tried to listen in on the conversation between her aunt and brother. "Tanner told her about the ditching classes and drug using," she explained to her sister before going back to chopping vegetables.

Jo grimaced as she tried to get a look on her brother and aunt. "Like I needed another reason to hate the dude," she muttered, mostly to herself, and it made Elena slightly giggle.

"Speaking of 'dudes'," she said and rolled her eyes at the word. "How did Damon know you?" she asked as she tried to focus on the vegetables in front of her. "You met him before?"

Jo's eyes widened. She had totally forgotten to tell her sister about what happened at the party, and she tells that girl any and everything. "About that…" she said with a slight cringe. "I forgot to tell you. Well, mostly because there wasn't much to tell," she began and Elena raised her eyebrows, edging her sister to go on with her explanation. "Okay, so at the party I took a walk, 'cause I was bored out of my mind and you were with Stefan and all that. Either way, I ended up pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the woods, and he just kinda appeared. It was creepy to say the least. Well, he said a few words, I said a few words back and that was it, nothing major," she shrugged at the end of her rambling sentences.

Elena raised one of her eyebrows, as if she silently challenged her sister. "And you just 'forgot' to tell me this?" she asked, a small smirk growing on her.

"Well, yeah!" Jo said quickly as she took a piece of cucumber.

"Jo, you always tell me everything," her sister stated.

Jo rolled her eyes. "I forgot! Jeez, woman. Don't be so needy. Stefan might not like it."

As Elena slightly blushed at the mention of the younger Salvatore, Jo sneakingly took another piece of cucumber before she opted for the couch. She needed to relax. And what better way to do that other than watching reruns of Friends.

* * *

The next day was the infamous day of the comet, and as usual the town of Mystic Falls there was going to be a whole festival in honor of the comet. During the day the residents of the town had helped prepare the whole thing, and Jo was no exception -although she mostly just walked around, ignoring her duties.

She ended up at the Grill and had spotted a certain football player in one of the booths. She plopped right down across from Matt and started talking. The two had always been great friends, even after her sister broke up with him.

"Okay, Matt," she said as she leaned forward, putting her chin on her hands that was propped up by her elbows. "You know you and I are best friends, right?" she asked and noticed the chips on the table, immediately eating handful of them.

"We are?" he asked jokingly with a sly smirk.

"Well, for the benefit of the talk we're about to have, let's just say that we're BFF's," Jo joked back and Matt laughed shortly at her. Jo stared at him with concern, and the two immediately went into serious-mode. "So how you holding up?" she asked him.

Matt sighed and his gaze flickered down to the table for a second. "It's been hard with Vicki and all," he said as he looked towards his older sister who was at the Grill as well, chatting up another girl. "But I feel fine, Jo," he assured his friend.

"That's not what I meant, Matt," Jo told him quietly. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at her. Jo rolled her eyes before she focused back on the guy. "Elena?"

Matt was quiet for a moment before he slowly exhaled. "Oh, right…" he said awkwardly before he took a small sip of his drink. He then looked back at the brunette who was watching him with a keen eye. "I guess it's a bit weird with the new guy," Matt admitted to his friend with a small shrug.

"Would it feel better if I told you- In all honesty, by the way," she added, which made Matt slightly chuckle, before she continued again. "If I told you that Stefan's actually a great guy?" she asked, but wouldn't let the guy answer as she began speaking again. "I mean, seriously, what kind of sister would I be if I let my sister date some douchebag, right?" she asked and Matt chuckled again before he shrugged at the previous question.

"Listen, Matt. I'm not saying this for Elena's sake, or for Stefan's, I'm saying this for your own sake. Maybe- And bear with me on this. But, maybe you should try and move on," she suggested to her friend. "I know, I know. Easier said than done, trust me, I know…" she said as she saw Matt's complicated look. "But I honestly think you owe it to yourself," she told him.

The quarterback just nodded as he thought through his friend's suggestion before his gaze went shortly back to his sister.

Something Jo did not miss. "So, how _is_ Vicki?"

Matt sighed before he spoke. "I think she's still shocked or traumatized over what happened, but she says she's fine," he answered her as he kept looking at his sister, as if checking if she was alright.

"She did get attacked, you know. I would be acting weird, too," Jo teased him a bit and looked at the older Donovan as well.

"Weirder than usual?" Matt teased back, which earned him a kick at his shin under the table.

"Hardy har, very funny," Jo said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "Did she say what happened?" she then asked, getting back on the topic of Matt's sister.

"That's weird, too."

"What is?"

"She didn't seem too sure," he said as he looked back at the oldest Gilbert sibling. She looked at him confusedly and he continued. "After the attack, in the hospital, she woke up and just muttered something and then blacked out again," he explained vaguely, making the girl even more confused.

"Care to elaborate?" she asked him. "What did she mutter?"

Matt exhaled as he hesitated, not sure if he could trust the Gilbert twin to not laugh. But, he decided against his doubts and told her either way. " _Vampire_."

Jo's eyes widened as she leaned back in her seat, watching her friend with a strange look. "Vampire?" she double checked and the guy nodded. "Like for real, the whole sucking blood, avoid sun, hundred year old, Dracula, Edward Creeper Cullen crap vampire?"

Matt shrugged, but a teeny tiny smile crept up on his face at Jo's analyzing of the creature. "I just figured some freak of a cosplayer had taken his roll and costume too seriously and attacked her," he explained and Jo leaned forward again, intrigued. "But when I asked her again yesterday she said it was an animal."

Jo was silent for a moment as she thought about it. "Maybe she dreamt it?" she suggested after a while. "You know, after getting so scared of the attack her mind just couldn't figure reality from fantasy? I've heard it's sort of usual for traumatized people," she said in all honesty.

"Yeah, I guess," Matt sighed as he leaned back in his seat again. "It's just, she kinda said it like a question, like she wasn't sure on the matter," he said and leaned forward again, wanting to talk it out as much as he could.

Jo took a hold of his hands on top of the table in a comforting matter as she spoke. "I'm sure it was just a wild, scared, confused but hungry animal who didn't have a better judgement," she told him, or more like tried to reassure him. Matt smiled at her appreciatively.

Although, it got her thinking. Why would the thought of a fictional creature such like a vampire pop up in Vicki's head? Jo was sure that she hadn't even read the classic Dracula or even Twilight for that matter, she just didn't seem like the type. So why would she be speaking of vampires?

* * *

After Jo, her sister and their friends had watched the comet for a while, and Elena had talked to Stefan about their situation, the whole gang -excluding Stefan- headed back inside the Grill. Unfortunately for Jo, by all it meant it included Tyler, who the girl still held a grudge against for his attitude against her and her brother the day before.

Speaking of the brat, Jeremy walked into the Grill and strode his way towards their table. "Hey, has anyone seen Vicki?" he asked them all, seeming concerned for the girl's safety.

"You're her stalker," Tyler snipped at the youngest Gilbert. "You tell us."

"Shut up, Lockwood," Jo warned her ex with a glare his way.

"Or what, Gilbert?" Tyler glared back.

"You're forgetting I know all about your secret stash of small My Littl-" She didn't get to continue on her sentence, since Tyler threw almost half a bowl of chips in her face.

"I can't find her," Jeremy said, completely ignoring his sister and Tyler.

"She probably found somebody else to party with," Tyler said, which actually earned him Jeremy's attention. "Sorry, pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced," he smirked at the boy.

"What's with the 'pill pusher'?" the twins -who sat next to each other- asked at the same time, making the rest stare at them weirdly.

"You gotta stop doing that, you guys," Caroline said with her eyes big and wide. "It creeped me out in fifth grade and still creeps me out now."

The two however ignored their friend as they turned to Tyler for an explanation. "Ask him," was his answer as he smirked Jeremy's way while the youngest of them all just glared back at him.

Jo looked to her brother with suspicious, squinted eyes. "He better not say what I think he's saying," she warned towards Jeremy.

"You wanna do this now?" Jeremy asked Tyler, again trying to ignore his sisters' rage as much as possible.

"Are you dealing?" Elena asked bewildered, while Jo just shook her head at the discovery.

"Please, tell me he's joking," she groaned as she kept watching the youngest Gilbert sibling.

"She's never gonna go for you," Tyler stated and- Quite frankly, he acted like a child.

"She already did!"

"Oh, boy…" Jo muttered as she slammed her face into the table. She was tired of the drama that revolved around everyone around her.

"Over and over and over again," Jeremy kept boosting in a way to irritate Tyler.

Jo wasn't so surprised by that. She had her suspicions all summer and even a bit before that. What did surprise her however, was how he tried to make it a way to anger the football player sitting across from her, and it worked.

"Yeah, right," Tyler huffed at him and looked at Matt, trying to shrug it off.

"You slept with Vicki Donovan?" Caroline asked in disbelief and then shook her head, rephrasing. "I mean, Vicki Donovan slept with you?"

"There's no way," Tyler kept denying while he shook his head.

"And I didn't even have to force her into it," Jeremy spat out in a low growl and it quickly grew quiet around the table, all eyes flickering from Jeremy to Tyler.

Jo sighed as she looked up from the table. She stood up so she was next to her brother and patted him on the shoulder. "You've done it now, little bro," she whispered to him sarcastically.

"What the hell is he talking about, Ty?" Matt asked, finally breaking the silence by his irritation of the fellow football player.

Jo raised one of her eyebrows at the guy as well. "Yeah, _Ty_?" she taunted him with her arms crossed and a smirk playing on her lips.

"Nothing, man," Tyler came quick to his own defense. "Just ignore him, he's a punk," he rushed out, as if he needed the conversation to end, which only made Jo's taunting smirk grow wider.

"You know what," Matt began and stood up in frustration. "How about all of you shut up and help me find my sister?"

Bonnie shared a glance with Caroline and the two nodded at each other. "We'll check the back."

"Outside," Jo saluted to them all and left out the back door while the rest scattered around as well.

She walked around in the small alleys between the old buildings in the town, softly calling on the older Donovan while searching for her. She however stopped in her tracks when she heard the now very familiar sound of Vicki's cry's for help. Jo looked around herself before she decided to follow the sound, which led up to the roof. With an anxious gulp, she jumped up to catch the ladder and began to climb up, not ready for what was about to happen next.

* * *

Matt had gone out to the town square to search for his older sister, but had instead found the younger Salvatore brother standing around, as if he was waiting for something to happen. The quarterback asked the guy about his sister, but Stefan seemed to have no idea of what he was talking about.

However, the vampire of the two heard a cry for help far away. He quickly excused himself from Matt and began to follow the sounds of Vicki's cry's and Damon's voice. Stefan saw them standing on top of the roof of the Grill. After looking around himself to make sure everything was cleared, Stefan jumped up on the roof and stood in front of the two, away from the ledge.

"Not bad," his brother commented. "Have you been eating bunnies?" Damon smirked at his joke.

"Let her go," Stefan told him.

Damon stared at him in slight disbelief. "Really?" he asked before he shrugged. "Okay," he said and leaned Vicki closer out to the edge and did a dropping motion, making the poor girl cry out louder in protest.

Stefan protested as well. "No, no, no!" he warned his brother and stepped closer.

Damon rolled his eyes and tossed Vicki to his brother, safely away from the edge. The girl whimpered as she laid on the ground by Stefan's feet, but the guy had his eyes set on his brother as he jumped away from the edge as well and walked closer to him.

"Relax," he told his younger brother. "I don't need her dead. But…" he began as he glanced down at the girl, before he looked back at Stefan with a mischievous smirk. "You might." Damon turned to the whimpering Vicki and leaned down a bit to her level. "What attacked you the other night?" he asked her, acting as if he was concerned, but the two remaining on the roof knew better.

"I don't know, an animal," Vicki mumbled in defeat and sniffled louder.

"Are you sude about that?" Damon asked the girl. She glanced up at him with a confused stare, making him smirk a little. "Think. Think about it. Think really hard," he paused as the two kept staring at each other. "What attacked you?"

There was a moment of silence as Vicki looked down at her hands, before her head snapped up in fright of the man in front of her, suddenly remembering. "A vampire," she gasped and tried to crawl away from the dark haired brother, looking more frightened than ever.

That, however, was not what caught Stefan's attention. He had heard a soft and small gasp in a small distance, from someone who was on that roof with them, but hiding. Luckily for them, Damon hadn't seemed to caught that as he kept taunting the poor girl on the roof.

"Who did this to you?" Damon asked her, getting louder and louder by the second.

"You did!" she screamed at him.

"Wrong!"

Stefan quickly caught up on what his brother was doing and he shook his head at him. "Don't," he said, almost begging him not to turn this whole thing on him.

"It was Stefan," Damon told Vicki.

Stefan shook his head some more at his brother. "Don't," he repeated one more time.

But Damon ignored him and grabbed Vicki by the arm and pulled her up on her feet before he put his hands on both sides of her face so she wouldn't look away from him. His pupils dilated as he looked at the girl. "Stefan Salvatore did this to you," he compelled her and she repeated what he said in a monotonic voice. "He's a vampire. A vicious, murderous monster."

"Please, Damon," Stefan began to plea to his brother. "Please, don't do this."

Damon however only let go of the girl and turned to his baby bro. "If you couldn't fix it before, I don't know what you can do now," he said to him before he ripped the bandage on Vicki's neck off, which made the wound reopen and fresh blood slowly pour out.

She cried out at the pain, but Damon just rolled his eyes and shoved her to Stefan. "Your choice of lifestyle has made you weak," he said as he noticed his brother breathing heavily as he tried to resist the urge to feed. "A couple of vampire parlor trick is nothing compared to the power that you could have, that you now need," Damon continued sternly as Stefan continued to struggle against his instincts. "But you can change that. Human blood gives you that," he said and pointed to the girl's neck.

Stefan growled at his brother's words and pushed the girl away from him, putting his hands on his knees as he tried to catch a breath that didn't have the scent of blood lingering, but it was impossible with the girl so close to him. Damon, again, rolled his eyes at his brother as he tilted his head a bit to look at him. "As I see it, you have two choices," he continued speaking. "You can feed, and make her forget," he suggested with a smile, but as he saw that Stefan didn't react to what he said, he scowled. "Or you can let her run screaming _vampire_ through the town square," he sarcastically said as he backed u a bit.

"That's what this is about?" Stefan asked in between heavy breaths. "You want to expose me?"

Damon looked at him puzzled, before his expression quickly turned to irritated. "No!" he yelled as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I want you to remember who you are!"

"Why? So what, so I'll feed?" Stefan asked him as he began stand up straight again. "So I'll kill? So I'll remember what it's like to be brothers again?" he continued to ask, and Damon stared at him with a look that Stefan couldn't read, but he continued either way, not waiting for a reaction. "You know what, let her go. Let her tell everyone that vampires have returned to Mystic Falls. Let them chain me up, and let them drive a stake through my heart. Because at least I'll be free of you," he spat at his older brother.

Damon stared at him with eyebrows raised high. He then smirked. "Huh," he huffed in amusement after a moment of silence between them, impressed by his brother's newly found courage. "Wow," he whistled and walked over to Vicki. He whispered something in her ear.

Suddenly her tears were gone and she seemed perfectly fine as Damon stepped away from her and next to Stefan. "What happened?" the girl asked them and looked around herself, confused of her whereabouts. "Where am I? Ah, I ripped my stitches open," she groaned as she felt the blood ooze from her wound and put her hand gently over it.

"You okay?" Stefan asked her, genuinely concerned for the girl.

"I took some pills, man. I'm good," she smiled before she stood up and walked away from the roof.

As she left, Stefan looked to Damon as the older began to speak. "It's good to be home," he smirked. "I think I might stay a while. This town could use a bit of a wake-up call, don't you think?" His smirk grew as he looked towards his brother, who scowled back at him.

"What are you up to, Damon?" Stefan asked.

Damon kept his smirk. "That's for me to know and for you too- dot, dot, dot," he joked and prepared himself to leave the rooftop. He snorted as he saw his brother's glare. "Give the Gilbert twins my best," he said and vanished.

Stefan stood still on top of the roof and looked to the spot where Damon had disappeared from. He knew that his brother being back would only cause trouble, it was almost like the word was Damon's middle name.

His thoughts were however interrupted by footsteps coming his way and a soft, familiar voice. "Stefan?" it called and the vampire turned to see the figure approaching. At first look he thought it might have been Elena, but when he saw the darker and shorter hair he figured it was her twin.

Stefan sighed. "How much did you see or hear, Jo?" he asked her.

She gulped down her nervousness. "Everything," she stated quietly, just above a whisper. Stefan sighed again when he saw the emotion that her face held. She was scared. Frightened even. "Are you going to make me forget? Like Damon did to Vicki?" she asked him and took a small step back. She frowned in confusion when the guy shook his head. "Why not?" she asked out of pure curiousity.

"Because I think it'll be easier for you to stay away from Damon, knowing how dangerous he actually is," he explained to her in the most honest way he could. She dipped her head in understanding and looked down at her feet. This made Stefan curious. "Are you scared?" he asked, even though he probably already knew the answer.

Jo let out a scoff. "Of Damon? Absolutely," she whispered as she nodded her head, before she looked up at the vampire in front of her again. "You?" she paused as she gulped, "I don't know yet…"

"Joanna, what you saw tonight," Stefan began as he slowly approached her. "I must ask you to keep quiet about this. Just having you know is dangerous enough, you hear that? Promise me not to tell anyone."

"So it's true?" Jo whispered as she hugged herself. "You and Damon, vampires?"

"Promise me, Joanna."

She was quiet for a moment as she stared off into the distance with tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Eventually she nodded without looking at him. "Okay…" she whispered. "I promise," she said only a fraction louder.

Stefan gave her a nod. "Thank you."

Jo nodded back at him before she turned and left, thinking of finding Elena and go home, also to get away from the vampire on the roof with her. Stefan looked at her as she slowly got off the roof, knowing he could trust the girl with his secret.

* * *

 **A/N: AND SHE LIVES!**

 **Holy crap, sorry! It's been waaay too long and I almost actually forgot about this story and website to be honest. But I'm back and I'm on Christmas Break, so hopefully I can get at least another chapter up soon enough.**

 **Again, sorry for the long wait.**


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